In Mississippi and Alabama, urban population growth is pushing development
into rural areas. To study the impact of urbanization on timber harvesting,
census and forest inventory data were combined in a geographic information
system, and a logistic regression model was used to estimate the relations
hip between several variables and harvest probabilities. Although proximity
to good roads increases the likelihood of harvesting, almost all measures
of urbanization-but particularly proximity to development and higher popula
tion density-lead to lower harvesting rates. Further, reductions in normal
silvicultural harvests outweigh the increases in conversion harvests and le
ad to a short-run decrease in supply.